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My Windows PC has got itself into a state where it won't boot. I have a recovery drive but when I try to recover from it, it gets to 75% then says "There was a problem resetting your PC. No changes were made"

I don't know the Windows installation key because I bought it second hand a while ago (since there are 2 recovery partitions on the hard disk, plus I have a recovery disk, I wasn't expecting to need it).

Any clues as to where I can go next?

Here's a bit of background: I made the recovery disk because I was going to repartition to dual-boot with Ubuntu. I disabled bitlocker and unencrypted the disk, and made sure secure boot was disabled. The ubuntu installation worked fine and I could dual boot both OSs with no problem.

The problem only came when I tried to re-enable bitlocker. First I tried it with the TPM but got the message "Bitlocker could not be enabled. The data drive is not set to automatically unlock..." so I disabled TPM and enabled bitlocker with a password instead. It rebooted to start the encryption, prompted me for the password but then just hung. I tried bitlocker recovery but it says the recovery password is incorrect (even though it's not).

So as a last-ditch attempt, I tried to recover from my USB recovery disk I only made this morning. it gets to 75% then says "There was a problem resetting your PC". Now if I try to boot from the hard disk it just says there is no bootable drive.

Update: the conclusion

Thanks to the two people who pointed out that you can get the media free from Microsoft and reinstall Windows 10 without it asking for an activation key. Since there was no data I needed (I have backups of course!), this solution worked fine for me, but the recovery disk had already trashed the partition table so I lost the Linux installation.

Because I'm a software developer and therefore also a masochist, I then tried exactly the same sequence again, and the results were identical - the PC (Dell XPS 13 9350) became unbootable and unrecoverable after trying to enable bitlocker with the TPM disabled. However, reinstalling Windows (unlike the recovery disk) does give you the option of preserving your existing partitions, so I didn't lose my Linux installation the second time.

I have also been led to believe (by BitLocker asking for protection code after Ubuntu installation) that the error I got when trying to use the TPM was unavoidable.

Andy
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3 Answers3

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It was running Windows 10 so even if you must reinstall Windows 10, it will activate.

However before this, it appears you need to test your hard drive with the Manufacturer's or Disk manufacturer's bootable test app. See if the hard drive is OK.

If so, get the Windows 10 ISO for your Windows 10 (Pro, Home or whatever), recover what data you can (use a bootable USB Key) and then re-install Windows.

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My Windows PC has got itself into a state where it won't boot. I have a recovery drive but when I try to recover from it, it gets to 75% then says "There was a problem resetting your PC. No changes were made"

The image used to perform this action is built-into Windows 10. If this image is corrupt or if the process encounters an error, the process is interrupted. Since you are unable to boot into Windows that is an indication your storage device is in a failure state. The process to Reset your machine creates a log file, even within the recovery environment, this log file might indicate what error the Reset process encountered.

I don't know the Windows installation key because I bought it second hand a while ago (since there are 2 recovery partitions on the hard disk, plus I have a recovery disk, I wasn't expecting to need it).

Windows 10 activation process is automatic. Since you are unable to Reset the installation. Reinstalling Windows from a Windows 10 ISO seems like your only option at this point.

Where can I get a clean ISO of a specific build of Windows 10?

So as a last-ditch attempt, I tried to recover from my USB recovery disk I only made this morning. it gets to 75% then says "There was a problem resetting your PC". Now if I try to boot from the hard disk it just says there is no bootable drive.

The incomplete BitLocker process is likely to blame for your inability to perform the Reset. This incomplete status also will likely prevent you from mounting the system volume in another operation system, so you can recovery important files before you reinstall Windows.

Your inability to enable BitLocker and stored the key within the TPM likely had something to do with the fact Secure Boot was disabled at the time.

Ramhound
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You can recover your computer, but you will lose all data.

When asked for a bitlocker password press Esc and then select

use another disk.

Then go to advanced options and select the command prompt. Type in 

format C:

and your disk will be formatted. Then create a recovery USB memory from

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10.

Run this as an administrator. Put the USB into the blocked computer. Right click and select "use another disk" and you will be able to select the memory stick as a boot. You could also restart pressing F2 and select the USB as the start up boot

zx485
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Robert MacLachlan
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